Husum Winery Earns Medals In Yakima

2001 Merlot and 2001 Gewurztraminer get gold medals

Wind River Cellars, Husum, was awarded five medals including two golds at the 18th annual Central Washington State Fair in Yakima.

This event is the largest judging of wine exclusively from Washington state. Wind River Cellars received the gold medals for their 2001 Merlot and 2001 Gewurztraminer. The Wind River Cellars Port of Celilo, Lemberger and Late Harvest Finale were all given bronze medals.

Once again, Celilo Vineyard, in Underwood, played a large role in these awards.

"Celilo Vineyard, without a doubt, is the finest Gewurztraminer grown in the Northwest." says Wind River Cellars winemaker and co-owner Joel Goodwillie. "Their quality is defineitely key in the success of many of our other wines as well."

Just weeks before the state fair awards, Wind River Cellars received five medals at the Northwest Wine Summit, which is the largest Northwest wine judging there is, drawing over 700 wines from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia.

At the NWWS, Wind River Cellars received silver medals on their 2001 Merlot and 2001 Celilo Vineyard Pinot Noir and bronze medals for their 2001 Celilo Vineyard Lemberger, 2001 Celilo Vineyard Chardonnay and 2001 Port of Celilo.

"Washington state is known for producing some of the finest Merlot in the world," says Wind River's Kris Goodwillie, "We are thrilled to be recognized as one of those great producers."

The Goodwillie's sell a majority of their product from the Husum tasting room and are very involved with both the Klickitat Wine Alliance and the Columbia Gorge Grape Growers.

"At the award presentations we had a table next to Maryhill Winery," said Kris, "Their wines also won several medals and it created so much awareness for the Klickitat wine industry. These awards speak volumes about what we have going on here in the Columbia Gorge and Klickitat County."